The political rise of Senator Kamala Harris: From California attorney to Congress

Kamala Harris was elected to represent California in the U.S. Senate in 2016. She got her start in California politics in the 1990s working as a local district attorneyHarris says her family roots are behind her political efforts today.

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Kamala Harris was elected to represent California in the U.S. Senate in 2016. She got her start in California politics in the 1990s working as a local district attorneyHarris says her family roots are behind her political efforts today.

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A longtime top staff member of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris resigned Wednesday after The Sacramento Bee inquired about a $400,000 harassment and retaliation settlement resulting from his time working for Harris at the California Department of Justice.

Larry Wallace, who served as the director of the Division of Law Enforcement under then-Attorney General Harris, was accused by his former executive assistant in December 2016 of “gender harassment” and other demeaning behavior, including frequently asking her to crawl under his desk to change the paper in his printer.

The lawsuit was filed on Dec. 30, 2016, when Harris was still attorney general but preparing to be sworn in as California’s newly elected Democratic senator. It was settled less than five months later, in May 2017, by Xavier Becerra, who was appointed to replace her as attorney general.

By that time, Wallace had transitioned to work for Harris as a senior advisor in her Sacramento office.

“We were unaware of this issue and take accusations of harassment extremely seriously. This evening, Mr. Wallace offered his resignation to the senator and she accepted it,” Harris spokeswoman Lily Adams wrote in an email.

Harris, who has said she will decide over the holidays whether to run for president in 2020, has been a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement against workplace sexual harassment. Last year, she was among a group of female senators that were the first to call for the resignation of Sen. Al Franken after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct, and she introduced a bill in June to ban forced nondisclosure agreements in harassment settlements.

Wallace did not return a call to his office seeking comment.

In her lawsuit against the Department of Justice, Danielle Hartley said she was recruited to be Wallace’s assistant during a 2011 restructuring of the Division of Law Enforcement. Wallace, a former Berkeley police detective who previously worked under Harris when she was the district attorney of San Francisco, had been appointed director earlier that year.

During an unspecified period, the lawsuit states, “Hartley had concerns she was being harassed and demeaned due to her gender.”

According to the lawsuit, Wallace placed his printer on the floor underneath his desk and ordered Hartley to replace the paper or ink on a daily basis. When she asked to move the printer to another location so she would not have to crawl under his desk in dresses and skirts, the lawsuit states, Wallace refused. Wallace frequently asked Hartley to put paper in the printer while he was sitting at his desk or in front of other male executives from the division, according to the lawsuit.

California Senator Kamala Harris put Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh in an uncomfortable position with a surprise question on whether he spoke with anybody about the Mueller investigation into Russia election meddling.

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Hartley also complained in the lawsuit that Wallace took away her “meaningful tasks” and put her in charge of running personal errands instead, including booking flights for Wallace’s children and washing and performing maintenance on his car. When she would return from these assignments, the lawsuit states, “co-workers would make hostile comments to her including, ‘Are you walking the walk of shame?’”

According to the lawsuit, Hartley eventually informed her supervisor, Shannon Patterson, of the harassment and asked for help. “Hartley observed Patterson enter Wallace’s office and met with him behind closed doors,” the lawsuit states, but after that, she began to experience retaliation.

The lawsuit describes that Hartley was “set up to fail,” micro-managed by Patterson, investigated by internal affairs on a “fabricated charge” for which she was never informed of the outcome, and “told she should quit her job and seek employment elsewhere.”

Patterson did not return a message requesting comment.

Two days before Christmas 2014, the lawsuit states, Hartley was involuntarily transferred to another bureau within the Department of Justice. She then began to search for a job outside the department, according to the lawsuit, but she was ultimately unsuccessful because the “stress from all of the harassment” took a toll on her physical and mental health.

Twice, the lawsuit states, Hartley took a state exam for a new classification and scored a 95, but she was not considered either time for the promotion.

Hartley said in the lawsuit that she began suffering from panic attacks and depression, and that in March 2016, she developed a pinched nerve in her arm that required surgery. She had the surgery in September, according to the lawsuit, around which time she also filed a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. When she sued two months later, Hartley was still out on medical leave because the Department of Justice has “chosen to not accommodate her.”

Through her attorney, Hartley declined to comment on the case.

In an answer to the lawsuit filed a month later, the department denied “generally and specifically each and every allegation contained in the Complaint.”

Becerra, who by then had been appointed to succeed Harris, and two of this deputies said the department took “reasonable steps to prevent and correct workplace harassment” by instituting procedures for harassment and training Hartley on the policy.

Hartley “unreasonably failed to utilize the procedures during the period of time, and after, the alleged harassment or discrimination was occurring,” Becerra wrote. “Had Plaintiff taken reasonable effort to utilize these procedures Plaintiff’s alleged harm, injury or damages would have been avoided, in whole or in part.”

But on May 16, 2017, the department settled with Hartley for $400,000. It continued to deny her claims.

As part of the settlement, Hartley resigned her position and agreed not to seek employment with the Department of Justice again. She also agreed to a non-disclosure clause, forbidding her from discussing the settlement amount or alerting the media to the agreement.

The Department of Justice late Wednesday said it would not comment on what it considers a personnel matter.

Amanda Renteria, who worked as Becerra’s chief of operations before mounting a bid for California governor earlier this year, signed off on the settlement.

She said Wednesday that she did not remember the details of the case, which was a holdover from before she arrived at the department in March 2017. She did not know whether Wallace’s departure to work on Harris’ Senate staff had anything to do with the lawsuit.

“Most folks that were connected to Harris went with Harris,” Renteria said.

Editor’s Note: This story was corrected at 9:50 a.m. Thursday Dec. 6, 2018 to state that Wallace was previously a detective with the Berkeley Police Department.